The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

1998 · Action-Adventure · Nintendo 64

Overview

Ocarina of Time translated the Zelda formula to 3D with innovations including Z-targeting — locking onto enemies for combat — time travel between Link's childhood and adulthood, and the largest open world a Zelda game had contained. It remains the highest-rated game on Metacritic and is consistently cited as one of the greatest games ever made.

Deep Dive

Ocarina of Time was directed by Eiji Aonuma and Toru Osawa at Nintendo EAD. The game's Z-targeting system — locking the camera and movement relative to an enemy — solved the fundamental problem of 3D action combat. The solution was so effective that subsequent 3D action games adopted it as a standard. The time-travel mechanic — moving between a child and adult version of Hyrule — was used to create puzzles requiring reasoning about both time periods simultaneously.

Developer Story

Ocarina of Time was directed by a team including Toru Osawa, Eiji Aonuma and Yoshiaki Koizumi, with Shigeru Miyamoto as producer. The game took approximately four years to develop and was one of the most anticipated games of the Nintendo 64 era. It launched in Japan in November 1998 and became the fastest-selling game of its year.

Did You Know?

Ocarina of Time's Z-targeting system was designed to solve the problem of 3D combat — every 3D action game that followed adopted some version of the lock-on targeting approach.
Ocarina of Time holds the highest Metacritic score of any game — 99 out of 100.
Navi — Link's fairy companion who provides hints — became one of gaming's most memed characters due to her persistent interruptions.